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Chapter 1: The Emptiness of the Heart

Bukko said:Taking things easily and without forcing, after some time the rush of thought, outward and inward, subsides naturally, and the true face shows itself..Now body and mind, free from all motivations, always appear as void and absolute sameness, shining like the brightness of heaven, at the center of the vast expanse of phenomenal things, and needing no polishing or cleaning. This is beyond all concepts, beyond being and non-being.Leave your innumerable knowings and seeings and understandings, and go to that greatness of space. When you come to that vastness, there is no speck of Buddhism in your heart, and when there is no speck of knowledge about you, you will have the true sight of buddhas and patriarchs.The true nature is like the immensity of space which contains all things. When you can go and come in all regions equally, when there is nothing specially yours, no within and no without, when you conform to high and conform to low, conform to the square and conform to the round, that is it.The emptiness of the sea allows waves to rise; the emptiness of the mountain valley makes the voice echo; the emptiness of the heart makes the buddha. When you empty the heart, things appear as in a mirror, shining there without differences between them. Life and death an illusion, all the buddhas are one’s own body.Zen is not something mysterious; it is just hitting and piercing through. If you cut off all doubts, the course of life-and-death is cut off naturally. I ask you all: do you see it or don’t you? - how in June the snow melts from the top of Mount Fuji.

Maneesha, Bukko has come to the ultimate expression of the experience of one’s own being. Very rarely has a master succeeded to such a point as Bukko has in his statements. Listen carefully, because rarely will you meet a Bukko again.

Bukko said:Taking things easily and without forcing, after some time the rush of thought, outward and inward, subsides naturally, and the true face shows itself.

That’s what I have been telling you. To be a buddha is not a difficult job. It is not some achievement for which you need a Nobel Prize. It is the easiest thing in the world, because it has already happened without your knowing.

The buddha is already breathing in you. Just a little recognition, just a little turning inwards.and that has not to be done forcibly. If you do it forcibly you will miss the point. It is very delicate. You have to look inward playfully, not seriously. That’s what he means by “taking things easily.” Don’t take anything seriously.

Existence is very easy. You have got your life without any effort, you are living your life without any effort. You are breathing perfectly well without being reminded; your heartbeat continues even in your sleep - so easy is existence with you! But you are not so easy with existence. You are very close-fisted. You want everything to be turned into an achievement.

Enlightenment cannot be an achievement. That which you have already - how can it be an achievement? The authentic master simply takes away things which you don’t have and you believe you have, and he gives you that which you already have. You are having many things which you don’t have at all, you just believe that you have them. The master’s function is that of a surgeon, to cut all that is not you and leave behind just the essential core - the eternal being.

It is a very easy phenomenon; you can do it on your own. There are no problems and no risk in taking things easily, but people take things very tensely. They take things very seriously, and that spoils the whole game.

And remember, life is a game. Once you understand it as a game, a deep playfulness arises on its own accord. The victory is not the point; the point is to play totally, joyously, dancingly.

What is called playfulness is very essential in the inquiry of your own being. Says Bukko:

Taking things easily, and without forcing, after some time the rush of thought, outward and inward, subsides naturally, and the true face shows itself.